10.25376/hra.8008877.v1 Megan Pesch Megan Pesch Julie Lumeng Julie Lumeng Methodological considerations for observational coding of eating and feeding behaviors in children and their families_2017.pdf Health Research Alliance 2019 Eating Feeding Observational analysis Video Behavior Child Parent Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified 2019-04-17 18:04:28 Dataset https://hra.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Methodological_considerations_for_observational_coding_of_eating_and_feeding_behaviors_in_children_and_their_families_2017_pdf/8008877 <div>Abstract</div><div>Background: Behavioral coding of videotaped eating and feeding interactions can provide researchers with rich</div><div>observational data and unique insights into eating behaviors, food intake, food selection as well as interpersonal</div><div>and mealtime dynamics of children and their families. Unlike self-report measures of eating and feeding practices,</div><div>the coding of videotaped eating and feeding behaviors can allow for the quantitative and qualitative examinations</div><div>of behaviors and practices that participants may not self-report. While this methodology is increasingly more common,</div><div>behavioral coding protocols and methodology are not widely shared in the literature. This has important implications for</div><div>validity and reliability of coding schemes across settings. Additional guidance on how to design, implement, code and</div><div>analyze videotaped eating and feeding behaviors could contribute to advancing the science of behavioral nutrition. The</div><div>objectives of this narrative review are to review methodology for the design, operationalization, and coding of</div><div>videotaped behavioral eating and feeding data in children and their families, and to highlight best practices.</div><div>Methods: When capturing eating and feeding behaviors through analysis of videotapes, it is important for the study</div><div>and coding to be hypothesis driven. Study design considerations include how to best capture the target behaviors</div><div>through selection of a controlled experimental laboratory environment versus home mealtime, duration of video</div><div>recording, number of observations to achieve reliability across eating episodes, as well as technical issues in video</div><div>recording and sound quality. Study design must also take into account plans for coding the target behaviors, which may</div><div>include behavior frequency, duration, categorization or qualitative descriptors. Coding scheme creation and refinement</div><div>occur through an iterative process. Reliability between coders can be challenging to achieve but is paramount to the</div><div>scientific rigor of the methodology. Analysis approach is dependent on the how data were coded and collapsed.</div><div>Conclusions: Behavioral coding of videotaped eating and feeding behaviors can capture rich data “in-vivo” that is</div><div>otherwise unobtainable from self-report measures. While data collection and coding are time-intensive the data yielded</div><div>can be extremely valuable. Additional sharing of methodology and coding schemes around eating and feeding</div><div>behaviors could advance the science and field.</div>